Soul (Chaos #1)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

The fae were pacified when Brendan declared a night of revelry. I still didn't get the rules or why they followed him even though he wasn't really the king. Perhaps they were hedging their bets, but maybe they believed in him. I only knew what I planned on doing.

I had begged Brendan to give Realtín and Grim the night off. He had reluctantly agreed. I thought he secretly enjoyed being nice to them.

Anya and Líle were to accompany me all night. Brendan, Sorcha, and Arlen would also join us, while others would infiltrate the crowds to keep us safe. The idea of being with faeries out in the real world had me buzzing with excitement and sick with anticipation. Something had to go wrong. It always did.

Anya giggled as she strolled next to me. She held out her arms as she decided what glamour to wear.

"How do I look?" she asked when her skin turned dark brown.

"It suits you," I said. "But I miss the blue hair."

Her eyes sparkled. "Best of both worlds."

Outside the nightclub, Zoe was already waiting, looking embarrassed as Darren shouted obscenities at the bouncers.

"Already?" I muttered, annoyed in case Darren ruined everything before the party got started.

"Oh, forget him," Zoe said, wrapping her arms around me. "Happy birthday."

I sank into the embrace, feeling a strange relief, as if something weighing on my mind had lifted. "Thanks," I said, pulling away because I felt strange.

Erika and Fiona did the birthday hug thing, and as they sang to me in exaggeratedly high-pitched voices, my gaze wandered to Darren squaring up to a bouncer outside the club.

"Calm down!" Zoe yelled at him.

Brendan approached the bouncers, his eyes calm and cool. I watched him make peace while Arlen silenced Darren. Líle distracted Zoe, and the others gathered around Brendan, so I couldn't see what was really happening.

"We should get inside," Erika said under her breath, "before he starts again. Zoe barely managed to get him here. He's started so many fights."

I frowned, flinching when Anya grabbed my hand. "Come," she said, brushing my hair off my neck to get close to my ear. "There's magic in a birthday. Invite it."

Her eyes had darkened already. Her hips swayed to unheard music as she led me inside the club. I followed obediently, ready for a release of any kind.

The club was dark and hectic and wild. I saw the nightclub clearly for the first time in my life, everything I had never really understood before, right past the glamours to recognise the illusions. Some fae spiked the drinks of unsuspecting humans while others danced seductively until their human partners collapsed in seemingly drunken heaps.

Brendan moved close to my side and placed his hand on my lower back as if trying to soak up my distaste.

" You knew," I told him. "You knew it would be like this."

"All easily explained away," he said in my ear. "Alcohol and drugs are nothing to what the fae provoke in humans. These places are feeding grounds, and while there's no king, there's nobody to tell them no. They're not holding back anymore, Cara. Your humans need me to rein in the mischief-makers. Your humans will always be at risk. Do you think Sadler would care about this? You heard about his son, how he's been raised to despise humans and treat them as playthings. Do you want that for your pretty friends?"

"What I want is to renegotiate!"

"I bet you do," he said. "But you can't give me what I want."

I shivered and looked around the club. Spotting Zoe by the bar with Líle, I made my way over, pushing through sweaty drunken fools with an anger I didn't fully understand. Every dark emotion I was capable of feeling rose and threatened to engulf me completely. I blamed the fae, but one day, I would have to acknowledge my own part - but not on that night, not on my last birthday.